Discworld Giveaway Extravaganza 2018 – GNU Terry Pratchett

Welcome to the 2018 Discworld Giveaway!!!!!

I am going to try and make this an annual memorial/tribute to the late great Sir Terry Pratchett. I will do it as long as I’m able, and there’s an audience that wants it.

I made an extremely long post last year in my first ever Discworld mega-giveaway. Oooo boy, that post was insane. Giveaway 2017

I didn’t really know what I was doing, and on the back end trying to get all of those books sent out to everyone was nuts. I have come prepared this year! The organization will be far better … I think.

The last time I focused on new readers only, wanting people who are submitting to be fairly new and read less than a handful of the books or hadn’t read any at all.

This year will be different – I will have a grand prize for dedicated fans. It’ll be a surprise that I’ll announce when I have the winner.

u/SteveThomas has been generous enough to help out with this giveaway!!!!! Thanks, Steve!!!!!

Why I Love Discworld Enough To Do Out Of Pocket Giveaways

Terry is a giant in the Fantasy community for good reason, not only are his books amazing, but he was a genuinely kind and engaging author who loved his fans as much as we loved him.

Often times with comedy authors (not always) the story is light, funny, absurd, but not exactly impactful or ‘meaningful’. They are silly stories to make you smile, but the characters may not reach your favorites list no matter how much they make you laugh, and often times reading them once was enough. Lack of depth is a common complaint or detraction I see when I read reviews for comedy books, and I think this is why Terry’s work goes above and beyond and landed him as a staple in the genre, with people rereading his stories over and over again.

Terry’s characters are endearing, the dialogue they have is engaging, the relationships between them feel real, and even the side characters manage to have depth – even if they only appear for a few paragraphs.

Discworld started as a parody of the fantasy genre and it didn’t stand out so much from other comedies in Fantasy, however, as the series grew so did the characters and plotlines. It went from a parody of fantasy to a satire on modern society. This can go so horribly wrong if it’s pushed too hard, or beats you over the head with its message. Terry danced across a tightrope that would have most authors plummetting to their deaths.

His books gained him so much attention that the Queen knighted him for his contributions to literature, +1 for the Queen IMO. He had fun with that too, he forged a sword and made his own coat of arms complete with House words, “Don’t Fear The Reaper.”

Terry touched my life in a way no other author has, in my first giveaway, linked above, I went on and on with quotes, endorsements from authors, and many other things to try and convince people to try him out even if they didn’t win. If you’d like to read that click the link above – I’m trying to keep this much shorter this year.

I haven’t figured out a better way to honor his memory than putting his books into potential fans hands.

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There are 41 Books, Where Do I start?

Discworld can be thought of as many different mini-series within one overarching series. It would be like if The Simpsons had been called Springfield, and The Flanders, The Simpsons, and The Wiggums all had their own storylines going that intersect from time to time.

I would not suggest starting with the first few books, and I say this with love. I’ve read dozens, and dozens, and dozens of times that people didn’t like Colour of Magic or The Light Fantastic which caused them to quit the series for a while… only to pick up Guards Guards! or Small Gods which they loved, and then continued on with the series. Plenty of people like the first few books, but plenty don’t as well.

To Quote Neil Gaiman:

Part of the problem with Terry’s fiction, is a lot of people wind up starting that <picks up copy of The Colour of Magic>…it’s a romp, and it’s a terrible place to start…it’s a collection of jokes and in The Colour of Magic, they aren’t even very good jokes. The Terry Pratchett of fine and beautiful plots built like Swiss watches was a long way from turning up.

The Witches

Start with these gals if you like an overarching theme of friendship with a group of opposing personalities. The dialogue between Nanny and Granny is just to die for – I live for these two. My namesake comes from Granny Weatherwax, a tough as nails no nonsense witch who’s a good person despite her curmudgeon persona. Nanny couldn’t be more opposite, quick to make a lewd joke and rarely without her flask. She’s a town favorite who chats it up with anyone, easily making friends with complete strangers. Magrat is a ‘new age’ kind of witch who loves candles and other things Granny finds to be nonsense.

You could start with Equal Rites, but I would suggest Wyrd Sisters because Granny and Nanny are so much more developed at that point.

The Watch

Start with this mini series if you want an overarching theme of ‘redemption’ and a cops and robbers type plot line. Sam Vimes starts out as a joke, he’s drunk more often than not, terrible at his job, and is barely holding himself together. Of all the main characters through this series, he’s the one with the most growth over his series, he’s almost unrecognizable by the end of his arc. As The Watch develops from a 3 man team of idiots to a well-oiled machine with dozens and dozens of guards, we’re introduced to a slew of amazing characters. Carrot (a human who identifies as a Dwarf), Angua (A Werewolf who sometimes eats peoples chickens when she turns, but always leaves payment), Cheery (a female Dwarf who dares to wear a skirt) are all great characters who join The Watch as the series progresses. The Watch is the most ‘serious’ of the mini-series within Discworld, it goes the darkest and touches on things that can really pull at your heartstrings.

This is a series I insist that people start with book 1, you can’t fully appreciate Vimes unless you’ve seen where he came from. Guards Gaurds! starts this series off. I like that one, but omg the later books rank in my favorites, especially Night Watch.

The Wizards

This series will appeal to people who like more absurd type humor with some of the Wizard Professors holding positions like The Chair of Indefinite Studies or the Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography. This will appeal to people who want to read about a bunch of crazy old Wizards doing ridiculous wizard things. Archchancellor Ridcully and his staff butt heads frequently – my favorite relationship is between Ridcully and Ponder Stibbons. Stibbons constantly drops random real-world scientific facts on Ridcully who just refuses to believe in such absurdity.

I would start try out Interesting Times or Reaper Man.

DEATH

It’s kind of hard to go wrong with this mini-series, DEATH was voted the “best character” over on r/books in a thread that had 4K comments, and won by a large margin. He’s a character that explores the meaning of humanity, life, the universe, and everything. These books have a wide variety of seriousness vs silliness. DEATH lives outside of Time in his own dimension, and watches humanity from afar – but also has a human grandchild due to circumstances too lengthy to explain. His interactions with his granddaughter and humanity in general is endearing and manages to touch on some of the darker subjects while making you love. Also, he loves cats.

You could start with Mort, or my favorite, Reaper Man. (Reaper Man has two plotlines, one with DEATH and the other with the Wizards)

Tiffany Aching

This is Terry’s YA series, and although I don’t generally like YA as much as I do adult fantasy, this series charmed my pants off. I love Tiffany, and I wish I had her as a role model growing up. There’s no angst, there’s no immature behavior – she’s an amazing and yet believable young witch who’s learning the ways of the world, and how to be a proper witch.

I would start with Wee Free Men

Other

There are a few shorter mini-series, one which focuses on Industrial Revolution, and many stand alone novels as well. If you’d like to read about those please click the Giveaway 2017 link. This post is getting really long and I promised myself not to ramble on forever and ever. Some of the great “Others” would be Small Gods, and Going Postal.

WHEW OK, NOW HOW DO I ENTER?!

Just comment below on what book you’d like to receive!

You don’t have to pick a book I suggested, any of the 41 are up for grabs, and I’ll include Good Omens too, just because it’s awesome and co-authored by Pratchett.

I will be doing this internationally through Book Depository, so if that site delivers to your country feel free to enter. Please, check for me before you enter instead of asking if BD delivers to your country. I’ll link the list of countries here, it takes a lot of time looking up 20+ peoples “does BD deliver to XYZ?”

THE GRAND PRIZE ENTRY

Are you already a huge Discworld fan? Prove it 😀 Post pictures of your collection, write a gushing comment about how much you love Discworld, draw me a pretty picture of your favorite scene, rattle off about your favorite characters and how awesome they are. Show me your Discworld love, and I will pick a person to win the Grand Prize. I’m not sure how the shipping will work out for my grand prize idea, so if the winner is international I’ll figure something out. Hopefully, it will work for international as well.

If You Win Please Follow These Directions!

In your DM to me, please in your title list your number and the book you requested. Also, PLEASE format the address info like this:

Name:

Street Address:

City:

County/Providence

Zipcode:

Country:

I know that sounds simple, but last year trying to decipher what was what lead to a number of shipping errors. Many countries have different standards for formatting their shipping info, so please make it clear. That way I’m not googling what you sent me trying to figure out if what you listed was the city or the Providence, or if it’s the house number or the zipcode. I spent hours doing that last year. Please and thank you!

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39 comments

This is so cool! I randomly snagged Hogfather off the shelf years ago and was instantly hooked:) I’ve read two discworld books a year since then and happily still have many left to read for the first time. Id be happy for the chance to win any of his books:)

Man I don’t know where to start. I’ve never read anything by Pratchett. Yeah I know some kind of fantasy fan I am. If I’m going to pick one I suppose I’ll go with Guards Guards! But really I could go with anything. Win or lose I love what you’re doing with this give-a-way.

Uber fan here. Loved Terry’s works since I was 13ish when I first read Equal Rites *thanks Mum ..met the man of my Dreams at a Discworld Convention and then married him in a “Massif” Discworld wedding. Photos of which are available to see over at https://goo.gl/photos/fNfSvjd5vD6cLJML6

Wow, what an awesome thing to do. I’ve been a Pratchett fan since reading The Colour of Magic in 1989. I have all of the Discworld books and most of his non discworld as well. I’ll have to take a photo to share and get back to you. Not sure about entering as I’d love the books to go to new readers, just wanted to say thank you for spreading the love.

Oh, wow, this is a very nice thing you’re doing. Now I’ve been a fan of Pratchett and the Discworld since about the early 90s, when this fun and quirky point-and-click adventure game was released. It was called “Discworld”, and I found it so funny, I had to check out the books it was based on. Went out and bought “The Colour of Magic”, and fell in love. Been reading them in order since. Expect for the one Discworld book I still haven’t read – I managed to skip “Raising Steam”. So please put me down for that one.

Oh, and today happens to be the 12th anniversary of me meeting the love of my life. I had a profile on a social media site, where I listed Pratchett as one of my favourite writers, and one day I got a message asking me why my favourite character was. So we started talking Pratchett and the Discworld, one thing lead to another, and here I am, 12 years later, still living with my fellow Discworld fan.

Aaaah! This is so neat and generous!! A friend introduced me to the Discworld series a few years ago when I was in college and having serious burnout. I realized I hadn’t read any new books in…a couple years, because you hit a point where all the covers and plot lines just look and sound the same and nothing was catching my interest. So she sent me Equal Rites, and then…. a whole pile of e-books. I’ve been devouring them ever since, and I genuinely feel they’ve changed the way I think about certain aspects of life. I move around a lot (three times in 2016, twice in 2017) so I’ve only gotten like…3 paperbacks, and would love to have more.

I still haven’t finished the books–I was blasting through them at first, then realized there’s a finite amount of books and I slowed down because I want to savor them before I run out.

As for what book I’d like to have–Small Gods. I found an audio book bootleg on Youtube once when I was at work–just looking for something to listen to while working–and it. Hurt my soul. Of all the books I’ve read, that one touched on aspects of my life (being raised extremely bigoted christian and home schooled K-12 with christian curriculum) that the others didn’t, and it was. Cathartic? It’s hard to put in words.

Wow that was a ramble. In summary: I really enjoy Discworld and how Pratchett found ways to explain philosophical concepts in a way that a stupid girl from the american south could grasp them, chew on them, and let them change her world view.

(And if you’re tracking this sort of thing, I found your giveaway via Twitter because Rhianna Pratchett retweeted it.)

This is an amazing giveaway!
I started reading at Reaper Man, courtesy of a good friend lending me her copy, and I never stopped. I’ve read the books, watched the adaptations, been to the convention, and am even the proud owner of a log from Sir Terry’s log pile (with bonus log!). The Discworld books made me laugh, think, cry, and are always as good to re-read as the first time I picked them up.
I would love to win Where’s My Cow? to read to my young, impressionable relatives.
Muahaha!!!

Wow, how absolutely amazing of you to do this! I would love a copy of interesting times! It’s one of my favourites, but don’t have it! I have been amasing my collection over the years as I used to pinch my brothers copies before I moved out, every Christmas I read the hogfather, I read masquerade at least once a year and am totally enthralled by the morris men of ank in Lords and ladies! Oh to be nanny ogg! I do have a greebo at home! 😀 I do have trouble reading at the moment due to illness but my birthday is at the end of the month and my husband has suggested some of the discworld series on cd, fingers crossed he gets me some! ☺ you are a star! ⭐️

Going Postal! Moist is the best character ever written in my opinion. I have listened to his 3 books many times, but the only book I own is Colour. Like many people I started with Colour and took too long to get to Moist Von Lipwig. Though I love Vimes and Nanny Wheatherwax, Going Postal is one of my favorite books ever written.

This is an incredible idea, and you are to be warmly congratulated! I would love to be considered for any title in the series; I have read them all… and have my collection boxed up (space considerations – I don’t have an L-spaced library… but have been nown to ‘ook on occasion… carry on…

So I know it’s already been said, but it’s amazing that you’re doing this out of pocket, wow. I’d personally love to get my hands on either small gods or Good Omens. Thanks again for being crazy enough to do this sort of giveaway

I’m a fan since early childhood (my birth prevented my parents from going to the first ever discworld con, and my sister is even named partially after Granny) and I’m currently introducing my girlfriend to the Watch series! It’s fantastic bonding time, and it’s the political satire that is so vital in today’s crazy days. I’d love a copy of Night Watch, it’s my favourite and most cathartic read!

I grew up with a Dad who raised me on puns and little bits from the Discworld series. He started me off with The Light Fantastic in my early teens and I have to admit it was slow going for me. I put it down and didn’t touch the series for a long while. However, I am one of those people who has to read a series in order, so when I began again in my late teens/early 20s it was with The Colour of Magic and I’ve been going slowly but steadily ever since. Like many, I adore The Watch and have become enamoured of that rag-tag bunch the most. I own all of the mini-series adaptations and have introduced my nieces to The Hogfather as a Christmas tradition. I also have the unfortunate luck to have been born March 15th, and so found out about Sir Terry’s death on my birthday and now wear my enamel lilac sprig and purple ribbon pin (purchased from Discworld Emporium if I remember right) the week of my birthday each year now. I know this is a bit much on information, and certainly more than you asked for, but it seemed impossible to not say how integral Discworld has been to my life. I could go on more, but I’ll stop myself with: I would like Small Gods, please.

This is an awesome thing you are doing! Terry Prattchett’s Discworld means an inordinate amount to me. I am currently trying to collect every book on paperback and audio book. Trying to quantify the enjoyment and refuge I’ve found in his stories is difficult. The kind cynicism of Granny Weatherwax helps me hold myself to a better standard. The intellectual determination of Sam Vimes reminds me that anything can be possible. Rincewind’s cycle of denial and then (eventual) resignation to heroism reminds me that the right thing is seldom the easiest or most attractive one. Death shows me that transience, although scary, helps give life beauty and meaning. William De Worde reminds me that no matter where we come from we can use our strengths and privileges to help the world, and these are just the largest lessons, every character, no matter how small, shows some truth about the human condition.
The Turtle Moves, and moves us all.

Oh wow, thank you so much for this giveaway! I’ve only read 2 Discworld books so far (Making Money (which wasn’t the best start, I have to admit) and Mort) and I really want to read more of it, because I know I will come to love it. Since I want to get started with the Witches series, I’d like to enter for a copy of Equal Rights 🙂

Ah! A giveaway! I now live across the country from my parents and their complete Pratchett collection and have been craving a reread. I started reading Discworld when I was a kid after my parents told me I was named for a character. I’d love a copy of Monstrous Regiment, which was an early favourite!

I’ve always struggled with Discworld novels despite loving the idea of them (my sister is a big fan and would retell me the stories to me when I was younger), even if Good Omens is my favourite book of all times. I think you’re right – I start with the wrong ones! Reaper Man sounds like the kind of novel I’d love, I’d love a copy of it if I won.

I hope I’m doing this right. I’d like to enter this giveaway if It’s still possible? Please say yes. I have never read any of Terry Pratchett’s novels but hey, It’s never to late to change that. If I am one of the lucky ones I would love to read The Wee Free Men. I really need something uplifting in my life and this one seems to be a very funny and uplifting novel.